Techniques in evolved packet core for restricted local operator services access

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatuses, storage media, and systems for performing a restricted local operator services (RLOS) authorization procedure. Various embodiments enable a network to authorize a user equipment (UE) with an RLOS access or subscription properly while aiding in minimizing or preventing potential denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional patentApplication No. 62/718,266, filed Aug. 13, 2018, entitled “EPC Solutionfor RLOS Access,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the technicalfield of wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

The background description provided herein is for the purpose ofgenerally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of thepresently named inventors, to the extent it is described in thisbackground section, as well as aspects of the description that may nototherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neitherexpressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the presentdisclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches describedin this section are not prior art to the claims in the presentdisclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in thissection.

In restricted local operator services (RLOS) networks, anunauthenticated user equipment (UE) may request to be wirelesslyconnected to a network and use certain services therein. However,various issues may arise under such wireless access related to anevolved packet core (EPC) network to obtain certain connectivity. Forexample, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks may occur in the network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detaileddescription in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitatethis description, like reference numerals designate like structuralelements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by wayof limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example architecture of a system ofa wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example procedure of authorizing a UE for RLOS inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 illustrate an operation flow/algorithmic structure tofacilitate an RLOS access authorization procedure in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example equipment to be operated in a wirelessnetwork, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an architecture of a network system in accordancewith various embodiments.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to variousexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings that form a part hereof wherein like numeralsdesignate like parts throughout, and in which is shown by way ofillustration embodiments that may be practiced. It is to be understoodthat other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in alimiting sense.

Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions oroperations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understandingthe claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should notbe construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily orderdependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in theorder of presentation. Operations described may be performed in adifferent order than the described embodiment. Various additionaloperations may be performed and/or described operations may be omittedin additional embodiments.

For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrases “A or B” and “Aand/or B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the presentdisclosure, the phrases “A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” mean (A), (B),(C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B, and C).

The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment,” or “inembodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same ordifferent embodiments. Furthermore, the terms “comprising,” “including,”“having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of thepresent disclosure, are synonymous.

As used herein, the term “circuitry” may refer to, be part of, orinclude any combination of integrated circuits (for example, afield-programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), etc.), discrete circuits, combinational logic circuits,system on a chip (SOC), that provides the described functionality. Insome embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software orfirmware modules to provide the described functions. In someembodiments, circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable inhardware.

An unauthenticated UE may be able to access to an operator's network forcertain services provided by the network. Once the unauthenticated UEsuccessfully downloads corresponding subscription profile(s) foraccessing the network, the unauthenticated UE may need to disconnectfrom an existing network and perform an authentication procedure withthe subscription profile(s). An unauthenticated UE refers to an UE thatis not authenticated to access a serving network and/or certain servicesprovided by the serving network. In such a procedure, an EPC network mayallow the unauthenticated UE to access the network for certainrestricted local operator services (RLOS). However, issues may ariseunder an existing access authentication procedure. For example, DoSattacks may occur and impact the EPC network.

Conventionally, a UE may attach to a fourth generation (4G) networkand/or fifth generation (5G) network. The UE may request to access aserving network for certain RLOS. However, an existing service networkauthorization procedure may lack necessary provisions and result in anunauthorized network providing service to the UE. This may result in theunauthorized network standing in the middle of services that areoffered. For example, the unauthorized network in the middle of servicesthat are offered may collect unauthorized information (e.g., paymentinformation and other user information) without proper authorization.Meanwhile, DoS attacks to the serving network may not be preventedeffectively due to existing authorization procedures.

Embodiments described herein may include, for example, apparatuses,methods, and storage media for performing an authentication procedurein, or related to, an EPC network from perspectives of both UEs and thenetwork. Various embodiments are directed to adequate authentications tosubscriptions of RLOS in a network. Such an authentication procedure maygrant unauthenticated UEs to access RLOS provided by the network whilemitigating DoS attacks with respect to the network.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example architecture of a system 100 of a wirelessnetwork in accordance with various embodiments. The system 100 is shownto include a user equipment (UE) 101 and a UE 102. As used herein, theterm “user equipment” or “UE” may refer to a device with radiocommunication capabilities and may describe a remote user of networkresources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE”may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client,mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit,mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, accessagent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radioequipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term“user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired deviceor any computing device including a wireless communications interface.In this example, UEs 101 and 102 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g.,handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or morecellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobilecomputing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones,smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computerdevices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets,desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI),in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, an Instrument Cluster (IC), head-updisplay (HUD) devices, onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobileequipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), Electronic EngineManagement System (EEMS), electronic/engine control units (ECUs),electronic/engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems,microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS),networked or “smart” appliances, machine-type communications (MTC)devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, Internet of Things (IoT)devices, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 and 102 can comprise an Internetof Things (IoT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designedfor low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. AnIoT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) ormachine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC serveror device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-BasedService (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensornetworks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be amachine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describesinterconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiableembedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), withshort-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications(e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate theconnections of the IoT network.

The UEs 101 and 102 may be configured to connect, e.g., communicativelycouple, with a radio access network (RAN) 110. The RAN 110 may be, forexample, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), orsome other type of RAN. The UEs 101 and 102 utilize connections (orchannels) 103 and 104, respectively, each of which comprises a physicalcommunications interface or layer (discussed in further detail infra).As used herein, the term “channel” may refer to any transmission medium,either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or adata stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalentto “communications channel,” “data communications channel,”“transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,”“data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequencycarrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or mediumthrough which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” mayrefer to a connection between two devices through a Radio AccessTechnology (RAT) for the purpose of transmitting and receivinginformation. In this example, the connections 103 and 104 areillustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, andcan be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as aGlobal System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-divisionmultiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol,a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution(LTE) protocol, a fifth generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR)protocol, and the like.

In this embodiment, the UEs 101 and 102 may further directly exchangecommunication data via a ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink (SL) interface comprisingone or more logical channels, including but not limited to a PhysicalSidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel(PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a PhysicalSidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH). In various implementations, the SLinterface 105 may be used in vehicular applications and communicationstechnologies, which are often referred to as V2X systems. V2X is a modeof communication where UEs (for example, UEs 101, 102) communicate witheach other directly over the PC5/SL interface 105 and can take placewhen the UEs 101, 102 are served by RAN nodes 111, 112 or when one ormore UEs are outside a coverage area of the RAN 110. V2X may beclassified into four different types: vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V),vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-network (V2N), andvehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P). These V2X applications can use“co-operative awareness” to provide more intelligent services forend-users. For example, vUEs 101, 102, RAN nodes 111, 112, applicationservers 130, and pedestrian UEs 101, 102 may collect knowledge of theirlocal environment (for example, information received from other vehiclesor sensor equipment in proximity) to process and share that knowledge inorder to provide more intelligent services, such as cooperativecollision warning, autonomous driving, and the like. In theseimplementations, the UEs 101, 102 may be implemented/employed as VehicleEmbedded Communications Systems (VECS) or vUEs.

The UE 102 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 106(also referred to as also referred to as “WLAN node 106”, “WLAN 106”,“WLAN Termination 106”, or “WT 106” or the like) via connection 107. Theconnection 107 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as aconnection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 106would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router. In this example, theAP 106 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting tothe core network of the wireless system (described in further detailbelow). In various embodiments, the UE 102, RAN 110, and AP 106 may beconfigured to utilize LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) operation and/or WLANLTE/WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel (LWIP) operation. TheLWA operation may involve the UE 102 in RRC_CONNECTED being configuredby a RAN node 111, 112 to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIPoperation may involve the UE 102 using WLAN radio resources (e.g.,connection 107) via Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protocoltunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., internet protocol(IP) packets) sent over the connection 107. IPsec tunneling may includeencapsulating entirety of original IP packets and adding a new packetheader, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packets. TheRAN 110 can include one or more access nodes that enable the connections103 and 104. As used herein, the terms “access node,” “access point,” orthe like may describe equipment that provides the radio basebandfunctions for data and/or voice connectivity between a network and oneor more users. These access nodes can be referred to as base stations(BS), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next Generation NodeBs (gNB), RANnodes, Road Side Units (RSUs), and so forth, and can comprise groundstations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stationsproviding coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The term“Road Side Unit” or “RSU” may refer to any transportation infrastructureentity implemented in or by an gNB/eNB/RAN node or a stationary (orrelatively stationary) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may bereferred to as a “UE-type RSU” and an RSU implemented in or by an eNBmay be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU.” The RAN 110 may include one ormore RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RAN node 111, andone or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cellshaving smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higherbandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 112.

Any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 can terminate the air interfaceprotocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 101 and 102.In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 can fulfillvarious logical functions for the RAN 110 including, but not limited to,radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearermanagement, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management anddata packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs 101 and 102 can beconfigured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any ofthe RAN nodes 111 and 112 over a multicarrier communication channel inaccordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limitedto, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a SingleCarrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communicationtechnique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications),although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 to the UEs 101 and102, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The gridcan be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequencyresource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in eachslot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practicefor OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resourceallocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds toone OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration ofthe resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radioframe. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted asa resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resourceblocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels toresource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection ofresource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent thesmallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. Thereare several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed usingsuch resource blocks.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data andhigher-layer signaling to the UEs 101 and 102. The physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport formatand resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among otherthings. It may also inform the UEs 101 and 102 about the transportformat, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request)information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlinkscheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to theUE 102 within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 111 and112 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs101 and 102. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent onthe PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 101 and 102.

The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the controlinformation. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCHcomplex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, whichmay then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching.Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, whereeach CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase ShiftKeying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can betransmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of thedownlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There canbe four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with differentnumbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for controlinformation transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one ormore enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, eachECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may haveother numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN 110 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network(CN) 120 via an S1 interface 113. In embodiments, the CN 120 may be anevolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network,or some other type of CN. In this embodiment the S1 interface 113 issplit into two parts: the S1-U interface 114, which carries traffic databetween the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 122,and the S1-mobility management entity (MME) interface 115, which is asignaling interface between the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and MMEs 121.

In this embodiment, the CN 120 comprises the MMEs 121, the S-GW 122, thePacket Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 123, and a home subscriberserver (HSS) 124. The MMEs 121 may be similar in function to the controlplane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) SupportNodes (SGSN). The MMEs 121 may manage mobility aspects in access such asgateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 124 maycomprise a database for network users, including subscription-relatedinformation to support the network entities' handling of communicationsessions. The CN 120 may comprise one or several HSSs 124, depending onthe number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, onthe organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 124 canprovide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization,naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

The S-GW 122 may terminate the S1 interface 113 towards the RAN 110, androutes data packets between the RAN 110 and the CN 120. In addition, theS-GW 122 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN nodehandovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Otherresponsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policyenforcement.

The P-GW 123 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 123may route data packets between the S-GW 122 and external networks suchas a network including the application server 130 (alternativelyreferred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP)interface 125. Generally, the application server 130 may be an elementoffering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network(e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). Inthis embodiment, the P-GW 123 is shown to be communicatively coupled toan application server 130 via an IP communications interface 125. Theapplication server 130 can also be configured to support one or morecommunication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP)sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networkingservices, etc.) for the UEs 101 and 102 via the CN 120.

The P-GW 123 may further be a node for policy enforcement and chargingdata collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 126 isthe policy and charging control element of the CN 120. In a non-roamingscenario, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land MobileNetwork (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol ConnectivityAccess Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with localbreakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE'sIP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF(V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF126 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 130 via theP-GW 123. The application server 130 may signal the PCRF 126 to indicatea new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS)and charging parameters. The PCRF 126 may provision this rule into aPolicy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with theappropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier(QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by theapplication server 130.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example procedure 200 of authorizing a UE for RLOSin accordance with various embodiments. At operation 0, the UE 101 mayreceive and/or decode a System Information Block (SIB) message thatindicates a serving network supports RLOS. The serving network may bethe network to provide the RLOS, which the UE 101 seeks. The UE 101 maybe unauthenticated by the RLOS and/or the serving network. While the UE101 decodes or determines that the RLOS is available from the severingnetwork, the UE 101 may perform further operations to obtain the RLOS.

At operation 1, the UE 101 may generate a first attach request torequest subscription of the RLOS provided by the serving network. Thisattach request may include information of the RLOS, and certain UEidentification (ID) information. Such UE ID information (also known assubscription identifier(s)) may include, but is not limited to, aninternational mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), an international mobileequipment identity (IMEI), and a universally unique identifier (UUID)with respect to the UE 101. The attach request may include an indicationthat the attach is for RLOS, which may be similar to an Emergence Attachindication that may be used for unauthenticated UEs for emergency callsand/or other like services. The attach request is transmitted to the MME121 of the service network. Once the RLOS is granted to the UE 101, theMME 121 may determine or select a locally configured APN that is usedfor the RLOS. The MME 121 may corresponds to an Access and MobilityManagement Function (AMF) in an NR network. In some embodiments, if theUE 101 is authenticated (e.g., in a limited state), the UE 101 mayperform a detach procedure prior to operation 1.

At operation 2, the MME 121 may respond the first request from the UE101 by transmitting an attach reject message. The attach reject messagemay be generated with a serving network certificate and a random number(RAND). The attach reject message may indicate or request the UE 101 tosend another attach request with the same and/or additional informationwith respect to the authorization of the RLOS. The RAND is a randomnumber generated by the MME and it may be, for example, 16 or 64 bitslong. The RAND may be used by the UE to generate an authorizationsignature.

At operation 3, the UE 101 may respond to the attach reject message bygenerating a second attach request message. Upon reception of the attachreject message from the MME 121, the UE 101 may generate theauthorization signature based on the attach reject message. The secondattach request may include the RAND received by the UE 101, or aninformation generated based on the received RAND. This information maybe generated based on the received RAND and a number of otherparameters. It may avoid or reduce replay attack(s) to the servingnetwork by using the RAND.

In embodiments, the second attach request message may include the sameor substantially similar information of the requested RLOS. The secondattach request message may include the same or substantially similarinformation of the IMSI, IMEI, and/or UUID of the UE 101. Further, theUE 101 may generate or provide a uniform resource locator (URL) of aglobal system for mobile communications association (GSMA) devicecertificate with respect to the UE 101. In embodiments, the URL of theGSMA device certificate may be signed with a private key by the UE 101.Such a signature of the UE 101 may be provided based on an indication orrequest in the attach reject message. Note that the UE 101 may beequipped with an enhanced Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC) withpublic/private keys, which is provisioned at a manufacturing phase tocorrespond to a certificate. The URL may include a pointer to acertificate authority 230 and a unique identifier of the UE 101. Forexample, the URL may be in a form of, or similar to,www.RLOSA.com/DeviceID=xxxx.

At operation 4, the MME 121 may retrieve the IMSI, if it is transmittedby the UE 101. The MME 121 may retrieve the IMEI via softwareverification, if it is transmitted by the UE 101.

At operations 5a-5d, the serving network may perform verificationsregarding the authorization information transmitted by the UE 101.

At operation 5a, the MME 121 may transmit an authorization verificationrequest message to an authorization server 225 in the network. Theauthorization verification request message may include one or moresubscription identifiers (IMSI, IMEI, UUID, etc.) received by the MME121. The authorization verification request message may also include theURL and the RAND. The authorization verification request message mayfurther include the signature signed by the UE 101.

At operations 5b-5c, the authorization server 225 may have a businessrelationship with a certificate authority 230 that is identified by theURL. The authorization server 225 may retrieve the device certificate bycontacting the certificate authority 230 by the URL. In such a way, thereceived signature in the authorization verification request messagefrom the MME may be verified by the authorization server 225. Theverification may result in an outcome of success or failure. In someembodiments, the certificate authority 230 may be part of theauthorization server 225.

At operation 5d, the authorization server 225 may generate anauthorization verification response message and transmit it to the MME121. The authorization verification response message may include theresult of the verification corresponding to operations 5b-5c. The resultmay include an indication of success or failure with respect to theverification of UE 101.

At operation 6, the MME 121 may continue this RLOS access procedure forEPC in accordance with corresponding 3GPP system aspects working group(SA2) specifications. This process may be referred to as provision ofaccess to RLOS. If the authorization verification response messageindicates a successful verification, the MME 121 may authorize the UE101 with access or subscription to the RLOS. If the authorizationverification response message indicates a failed verification, the MME121 may discontinue this RLOS access/attach procedure by sending a finalattach reject message to the UE 101.

In embodiments, the above-described procedure may be applicable to LTEtechnologies, NE technologies, and various future wireless technologies.Note that the MME may be referred to as an access and mobilitymanagement function (AMF), or other like terms.

FIG. 3 illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 tofacilitate an RLOS access authorization procedure in accordance withvarious embodiments. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 may bepart of the procedure of RLOS access authorization as illustrated withrespect to FIG. 2. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 may beperformed by the UE 101 or circuitry thereof.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 may include, at 305,transmitting a first attach request message for accessing RLOS providedby a serving network. In various embodiments, the first attach requestmessage may be the same as or substantially similar to the first attachrequest message at operation 1 with respect to FIG. 2, which may includeinformation of the request RLOS, subscription identifier(s), and/orother information regarding UE. One or more subscription identifiers mayinclude, but are not limited to, IMSI, IMEI, and UUID of the UE 101. TheUE 101 may generate the first attach request message to include some orall of the above-mentioned information. The UE 101 may beunauthenticated or authenticated by the serving network.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 may include, at 310,decoding, upon reception of an attach reject message, a random number(RAND) in the attach reject message. The attach reject message may bethe same as or substantially similar to the attach reject message atoperation 2 with respect to FIG. 2, which may include the RAND and otherrequests with respect to the UE authorization/authentication procedureto gain access/subscription to the RLOS. The UE 101 may receive theattach reject message via corresponding network node(s) and/or entities.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 may include, at 315,transmitting a second attach request message that includes the randomnumber. The attach reject message may be the same as or substantiallysimilar to the second attach request message at operation 3 with respectto FIG. 2, which may include the RAND and other authorizationinformation with respect to the UE authorization/authenticationprocedure to gain access/subscription to the RLOS. In embodiments, thesecond attach request message may include the same or substantiallysimilar information of the IMSI, IMEI, and/or UUID of the UE 101, as thesubscription identifier(s) included in the first attach request message.Upon request(s) by the MME or AMF in the attach reject message, the UE101 may generate or provide a uniform resource locator (URL) of a globalsystem for mobile communications association (GSMA) device certificatewith respect to the UE 101. In embodiments, the URL of the GSMA devicecertificate may be signed with a private key by the UE 101. Such asignature of the UE 101 may be provided based on an indication orrequest in the attach reject message. Note that the UE 101 may beequipped with an eUICC with public/private keys, which is provisioned atmanufacturing phase to correspond to a certificate. The UE 101 maygenerate the second attach request message based on reception of theattach reject message by the MME 121 or an AMF.

FIG. 4 illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure 400 tofacilitate the RLOS access authorization procedure in accordance withvarious embodiments. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 400 may bepart of the procedure of RLOS access authorization as illustrated withrespect to FIG. 2. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 400 may beperformed by the MME 121, an AMF or respective circuitry thereof.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 400 may include, at 405,receiving a first attach request message from a UE for accessing RLOSprovided by a serving network associated with the MME. The MME 121 maydecode the first attach request message transmitted by the UE 101.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 400 may include, at 410,transmitting, based on reception of the first attach request message, anattach reject message that includes a random number generated by the MMEor AMF. The MME or AMF may generate the attach reject message to the UE101. The attach reject message may be the same as or substantiallysimilar to the attach reject message at operation 2 with respect to FIG.2, which may include the RAND and other requests with respect to the UEauthorization/authentication procedure to gain access/subscription tothe RLOS. The attach reject message may include one or more requests forUE authorization information.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 400 may include, at 415,decoding, based on reception of a second attach request message from theUE, the random number in the second attach request message and one ormore subscription identifiers of the UE. The second attach requestmessage may be the same as or substantially similar to the second attachrequest message at operation 3 with respect to FIG. 2, which may includethe RAND, UE subscription identifier information, and/or the URL of theGSMA device certificate with respect to the UEauthorization/authentication procedure to gain access/subscription tothe RLOS. The MME or AMF may retrieve the IMSI and/or IMEI, and verifythem accordingly.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 400 may include, at 420,determining an authorization decision for the UE to access the RLOS. Thedetermination may be the same as or substantially similar to theprocedure at operations 5a-5d with respect to FIG. 2. The authorizationdecision may indicate a successful verification to enable further PARLOSaccess procedure, or a failed verification to discontinue the RLOSattach procedure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 tofacilitate the RLOS access authorization procedure in accordance withvarious embodiments. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may bepart of the procedure of RLOS access authorization as illustrated withrespect to FIG. 2. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may beperformed by the authorization server 225 or circuitry thereof.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 505,receiving an authorization verification request message from the MME orAMF. The authorization verification request message may be the same asor substantially similar to the authorization verification requestmessage at operation 5a with respect to FIG. 2, which may include theRAND, UE subscription identifier information, URL, and/or signature bythe UE.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 510,determining an authorization verification based on the authorizationverification request message. The determination of the authorizationverification of the UE may be the same as or substantially similar tothe authorization verification request message at operations 5b-5c withrespect to FIG. 2. The authorization server 225 may retrieve a devicecertificate. In some embodiments, the retrieval may be from acertificate authority 230. The authorization server 225 may verify thereceived signature and/or other UE information with the retrieved devicecertificate information. The authorization server 225 may render adecision regarding whether the UE is verified successfully or not.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 515,transmitting an authorization verification response to the MME. Theauthorization verification response may be the same as or substantiallysimilar to the authorization verification request message at operations5d with respect to FIG. 2.

The following figures describe systems, devices, and components that mayimplement various embodiments described herein. Like named elements maybe substituted for one another.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example equipment 600 to be operated in a wirelessnetwork, in accordance with various embodiments. The equipment 600 (or“system 600”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RANnode, etc. In other examples, the system 600 may be implemented in or bya UE, application server(s) 130, and/or any other element/devicediscussed herein. The system 600 may include one or more of applicationcircuitry 605, baseband circuitry 610, one or more radio front endmodules 615, memory circuitry 620, power management integrated circuitry(PMIC) 625, power tee circuitry 630, network controller circuitry 635,network interface connector 640, satellite positioning circuitry 645,and user interface circuitry 650. In some embodiments, the system 600may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage,display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In otherembodiments, the components described below may be included in more thanone device (e.g., said circuitries may be separately included in morethan one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations).

As used herein, the term “circuitry” may refer to, is part of, orincludes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logiccircuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory(shared, dedicated, or group), an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., afield-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD),a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, ora programmable System on Chip (SoC)), digital signal processors (DSPs),etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. Insome embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software orfirmware programs to provide at least some of the describedfunctionality. In addition, the term “circuitry” may also refer to acombination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination ofcircuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the programcode used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In theseembodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code maybe referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may beconsidered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processorcircuitry.” As used herein, the term “processor circuitry” may refer to,is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially andautomatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logicaloperations; recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. Theterm “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more applicationprocessors, one or more baseband processors, a physical centralprocessing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, atriple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other devicecapable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executableinstructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functionalprocesses.

Furthermore, the various components of the core network 120 may bereferred to as “network elements.” The term “network element” maydescribe a physical or virtualized equipment used to provide wired orwireless communication network services. The term “network element” maybe considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer,networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch,hub, bridge, radio network controller, radio access network device,gateway, server, virtualized network function (VNF), network functionsvirtualization infrastructure (NFVI), and/or the like.

Application circuitry 605 may include one or more central processingunit (CPU) cores and one or more of cache memory, low drop-out voltageregulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI,I2C or universal programmable serial interface module, real time clock(RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, generalpurpose input/output (I/O or TO), memory card controllers such as SecureDigital (SD/)MultiMediaCard (MMC) or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB)interfaces, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interfaces, andJoint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports. As examples, theapplication circuitry 605 may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®,or Xeon® processor(s); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s),Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors; and/or thelike. In some embodiments, the system 600 may not utilize applicationcircuitry 605, and instead may include a special-purposeprocessor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC or SGC, forexample.

Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry 605 may includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more field-programmabledevices (FPDs) such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and thelike; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs),high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structuredASICs and the like; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In suchembodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 605 may compriselogic blocks or logic fabric including other interconnected resourcesthat may be programmed to perform various functions, such as theprocedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodimentsdiscussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of applicationcircuitry 605 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random accessmemory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.) used to store logic blocks, logicfabric, data, etc. in lookup-tables (LUTs) and the like.

The baseband circuitry 610 may be implemented, for example, as asolder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Althoughnot shown, baseband circuitry 610 may comprise one or more digitalbaseband systems, which may be coupled via an interconnect subsystem toa CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem. Thedigital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital basebandinterface and a mixed-signal baseband sub-system via anotherinterconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may includea bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC)structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology,such as those discussed herein. The audio sub-system may include digitalsignal processing circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speechprocessing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such asanalog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analogcircuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or otherlike components. In an aspect of the present disclosure, basebandcircuitry 610 may include protocol processing circuitry with one or moreinstances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functionsfor the digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (forexample, the radio front end modules 615).

User interface circuitry 650 may include one or more user interfacesdesigned to enable user interaction with the system 600 or peripheralcomponent interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interactionwith the system 600. User interfaces may include, but are not limited toone or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one ormore indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physicalkeyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers orother audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, aheadset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral componentinterfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memoryport, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supplyinterface, etc.

The radio front end modules (RFEMs) 615 may comprise a millimeter waveRFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integratedcircuits (RFICs).

The memory circuitry 620 may include one or more of volatile memoryincluding dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate thethree-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® andMicron®. Memory circuitry 620 may be implemented as one or more ofsolder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules andplug-in memory cards.

The PMIC 625 may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, poweralarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such asa battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detectone or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage)conditions. The power tee circuitry 630 may provide for electrical powerdrawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and dataconnectivity to the infrastructure equipment 600 using a single cable.

The network controller circuitry 635 may provide connectivity to anetwork using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet,Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching(MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may beprovided to/from the infrastructure equipment 600 via network interfaceconnector 640 using a physical connection, which may be electrical(commonly referred to as a “copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless.The network controller circuitry 635 may include one or more dedicatedprocessors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of theaforementioned protocol. In some implementations, the network controllercircuitry 635 may include multiple controllers to provide connectivityto other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 645 may include circuitry to receive anddecode signals transmitted by one or more navigation satelliteconstellations of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examplesof navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include UnitedStates' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global NavigationSystem (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, China's BeiDouNavigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSSaugmentation system (e.g., Navigation with Indian Constellation (NAVIC),Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's DopplerOrbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS),etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 645 may comprise varioushardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches,filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate theover-the-air (OTA) communications to communicate with components of apositioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes.

The components shown by FIG. 6 may communicate with one another usinginterface circuitry. As used herein, the term “interface circuitry” mayrefer to, is part of, or includes circuitry providing for the exchangeof information between two or more components or devices. The term“interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, forexample, buses, input/output (I/O) interfaces, peripheral componentinterfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like. Any suitable bustechnology may be used in various implementations, which may include anynumber of technologies, including industry standard architecture (ISA),extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheralcomponent interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or anynumber of other technologies. The bus may be a proprietary bus, forexample, used in a SoC based system. Other bus systems may be included,such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, point to point interfaces,and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 7 illustrates an architecture of a network system 700 in accordancewith various embodiments. The system 700 is shown to include a UE 701,which may be the same or similar to UEs 601 and 602 discussedpreviously; a RAN node 711, which may be the same or similar to RANnodes 611 and 612 discussed previously; a data network (DN) 703, whichmay be, for example, operator services, Internet access or 3rd partyservices; and a 5G Core Network (5GC or CN) 720.

The CN 720 may include an Authentication Server Function (AUSF) 722; anAccess and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 721; a Session ManagementFunction (SMF) 724; a Network Exposure Function (NEF) 723; a PolicyControl Function (PCF) 726; a Network Function (NF) Repository Function(NRF) 725; a Unified Data Management (UDM) 727; an Application Function(AF) 728; a User Plane Function (UPF) 702; and a Network Slice SelectionFunction (NSSF) 729.

The UPF 702 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RATmobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to DN 703, and abranching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 702 may alsoperform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection,enforce user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UPcollection); perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling foruser plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement),perform Uplink Traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping),transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and downlinkpacket buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 702 mayinclude an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a datanetwork. The DN 703 may represent various network operator services,Internet access, or third party services. DN 703 may include, or besimilar to, application server 630 discussed previously. The UPF 702 mayinteract with the SMF 724 via an N4 reference point between the SMF 724and the UPF 702.

The AUSF 722 may store data for authentication of UE 701 and handleauthentication related functionality. The AUSF 722 may facilitate acommon authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 722may communicate with the AMF 721 via an N12 reference point between theAMF 721 and the AUSF 722; and may communicate with the UDM 727 via anN13 reference point between the UDM 727 and the AUSF 722. Additionally,the AUSF 722 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF 721 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., forregistering UE 701, etc.), connection management, reachabilitymanagement, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-relatedevents, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 721 may bea termination point for an N11 reference point between the AMF 721 andthe SMF 724. The AMF 721 may provide transport for Session Management(SM) messages between the UE 701 and the SMF 724, and act as atransparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 721 may also providetransport for short message service (SMS) messages between UE 701 and anSMS function (SMSF) (not shown by FIG. 7). AMF 721 may act as SecurityAnchor Function (SEA), which may include interaction with the AUSF 722and the UE 701, receipt of an intermediate key that was established as aresult of the UE 701 authentication process. Where USIM basedauthentication is used, the AMF 721 may retrieve the security materialfrom the AUSF 722. AMF 721 may also include a Security ContextManagement (SCM) function, which receives a key from the SEA that ituses to derive access-network specific keys. Furthermore, AMF 721 may bea termination point of RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2reference point between the (R)AN 711 and the AMF 721; and the AMF 721may be a termination point of NAS (N1) signalling, and perform NASciphering and integrity protection.

AMF 721 may also support NAS signalling with a UE 701 over an N3interworking-function (IWF) interface. The N3IWF may be used to provideaccess to untrusted entities. N3IWF may be a termination point for theN2 interface between the (R)AN 711 and the AMF 721 for the controlplane, and may be a termination point for the N3 reference point betweenthe (R)AN 711 and the UPF 702 for the user plane. As such, the AMF 721may handle N2 signalling from the SMF 724 and the AMF 721 for PDUsessions and QoS, encapsulate/de-encapsulate packets for IPSec and N3tunnelling, mark N3 user-plane packets in the uplink, and enforce QoScorresponding to N3 packet marking taking into account QoS requirementsassociated to such marking received over N2. N3IWF may also relay uplinkand downlink control-plane NAS signalling between the UE 701 and AMF 721via an N1 reference point between the UE 701 and the AMF 721, and relayuplink and downlink user-plane packets between the UE 701 and UPF 702.The N3IWF also provides mechanisms for IPsec tunnel establishment withthe UE 701. The AMF 721 may exhibit an Namf service-based interface, andmay be a termination point for an N14 reference point between two AMFs721 and an N17 reference point between the AMF 721 and a 5G-EquipmentIdentity Register (5G-EIR) (not shown by FIG. 7).

The SMF 724 may be responsible for session management (e.g., sessionestablishment, modify and release, including tunnel maintain between UPFand AN node); UE IP address allocation and management (includingoptional authorization); selection and control of UP function;configuring traffic steering at UPF to route traffic to properdestination; termination of interfaces towards policy control functions;controlling part of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful intercept (for SMevents and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NASmessages; downlink Data Notification; initiation of AN specific SMinformation, sent via AMF 721 over N2 to (R)AN 711; and determining SSCmode of a session. The SMF 724 may include the following roamingfunctionality: handle local enforcement to apply QoS SLAB (VPLMN);charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawfulintercept (in VPLMN for SM events and interface to LI system); supportfor interaction with external DN for transport of signalling for PDUsession authorization/authentication by external DN. An N16 referencepoint between two SMFs 724 may be included in the system 700, which maybe between another SMF 724 in a visited network and the SMF 724 in thehome network in roaming scenarios. Additionally, the SMF 724 may exhibitthe Nsmf service-based interface.

The NEF 723 may provide means for securely exposing the services andcapabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party,internal exposure/re-exposure, Application Functions (e.g., AF 728),edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, theNEF 723 may authenticate, authorize, and/or throttle the AFs. NEF 723may also translate information exchanged with the AF 728 and informationexchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 723 maytranslate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GCinformation. NEF 723 may also receive information from other networkfunctions (NFs) based on exposed capabilities of other networkfunctions. This information may be stored at the NEF 723 as structureddata, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The storedinformation can then be re-exposed by the NEF 723 to other NFs and AFs,and/or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF723 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.

The NRF 725 may support service discovery functions, receive NFDiscovery Requests from NF instances, and provide the information of thediscovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 725 also maintainsinformation of available NF instances and their supported services. Asused herein, the terms “instantiate”, “instantiation”, and the like mayrefer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to aconcrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, duringexecution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 725 may exhibit theNnrf service-based interface.

The PCF 726 may provide policy rules to control plane function(s) toenforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to governnetwork behavior. The PCF 726 may also implement a front end (FE) toaccess subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDRof the UDM 727. The PCF 726 may communicate with the AMF 721 via an N15reference point between the PCF 726 and the AMF 721, which may include aPCF 726 in a visited network and the AMF 721 in case of roamingscenarios. The PCF 726 may communicate with the AF 728 via an N5reference point between the PCF 726 and the AF 728; and with the SMF 724via an N7 reference point between the PCF 726 and the SMF 724. Thesystem 700 and/or CN 720 may also include an N24 reference point betweenthe PCF 726 (in the home network) and a PCF 726 in a visited network.Additionally, the PCF 726 may exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 727 may handle subscription-related information to support thenetwork entities' handling of communication sessions, and may storesubscription data of UE 701. For example, subscription data may becommunicated between the UDM 727 and the AMF 721 via an N8 referencepoint between the UDM 727 and the AMF 721. The UDM 727 may include twoparts, an application FE and a User Data Repository (UDR) (the FE andUDR are not shown by FIG. 7). The UDR may store subscription data andpolicy data for the UDM 727 and the PCF 726, and/or structured data forexposure and application data (including Packet Flow Descriptions (PFDs)for application detection, application request information for multipleUEs 701) for the NEF 723. The Nudr service-based interface may beexhibited by the UDR to allow the UDM 727, PCF 726, and NEF 723 toaccess a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update(e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevantdata changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM FE, which is incharge of processing of credentials, location management, subscriptionmanagement, and so on. Several different front ends may serve the sameuser in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscriptioninformation stored in the UDR and performs authentication credentialprocessing; user identifier handling; access authorization;registration/mobility management; and subscription management. The UDRmay interact with the SMF 724 via an N10 reference point between the UDM727 and the SMF 724. UDM 727 may also support SMS management, wherein anSMS-FE implements the similar application logic as discussed previously.Additionally, the UDM 727 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

The AF 728 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provideaccess to the Network Capability Exposure (NCE), and interact with thepolicy framework for policy control. The NCE may be a mechanism thatallows the 5GC and AF 728 to provide information to each other via NEF723, which may be used for edge computing implementations. In suchimplementations, the network operator and third party services may behosted close to the UE 701 access point of attachment to achieve anefficient service delivery through the reduced end-to-end latency andload on the transport network. For edge computing implementations, the5GC may select a UPF 702 close to the UE 701 and execute trafficsteering from the UPF 702 to DN 703 via the N6 interface. This may bebased on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information providedby the AF 728. In this way, the AF 728 may influence UPF (re)selectionand traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 728 isconsidered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF728 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 728 mayexhibit an Naf service-based interface.

The NSSF 729 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE701. The NSSF 729 may also determine allowed Network Slice SelectionAssistance Information (NSSAI) and the mapping to the SubscribedSingle-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs), if needed. The NSSF 729 may also determine theAMF set to be used to serve the UE 701, or a list of candidate AMF(s)721 based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF725. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 701may be triggered by the AMF 721 with which the UE 701 is registered byinteracting with the NSSF 729, which may lead to a change of AMF 721.The NSSF 729 may interact with the AMF 721 via an N22 reference pointbetween AMF 721 and NSSF 729; and may communicate with another NSSF 729in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown by FIG. 7).Additionally, the NSSF 729 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

As discussed previously, the CN 720 may include an SMSF, which may beresponsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relayingSM messages to/from the UE 701 to/from other entities, such as anSMS-GMSC/IWMSC/SMS-router. The SMS may also interact with AMF 721 andUDM 727 for notification procedure that the UE 701 is available for SMStransfer (e.g., set a UE not reachable flag, and notifying UDM 727 whenUE 701 is available for SMS).

The CN 720 may also include other elements that are not shown by FIG. 7,such as a Data Storage system/architecture, a 5G-Equipment IdentityRegister (5G-EIR), a Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), and thelike. The Data Storage system may include a Structured Data Storagenetwork function (SDSF), an Unstructured Data Storage network function(UDSF), and/or the like. Any NF may store and retrieve unstructured datainto/from the UDSF (e.g., UE contexts), via N18 reference point betweenany NF and the UDSF (not shown by FIG. 7). Individual NFs may share aUDSF for storing their respective unstructured data or individual NFsmay each have their own UDSF located at or near the individual NFs.Additionally, the UDSF may exhibit an Nudsf service-based interface (notshown by FIG. 7). The 5G-EIR may be an NF that checks the status ofPermanent Equipment Identifiers (PEI) for determining whether particularequipment/entities are blacklisted from the network; and the SEPP may bea non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, messagefiltering, and policing on inter-PLMN control plane interfaces.

Additionally, there may be many more reference points and/orservice-based interfaces between the NF services in the NFs; however,these interfaces and reference points have been omitted from FIG. 7 forclarity. In one example, the CN 720 may include an Nx interface, whichis an inter-CN interface between the MME (e.g., MME 621) and the AMF 721in order to enable interworking between CN 720 and CN 620. Other exampleinterfaces/reference points may include an N5g-eir service-basedinterface exhibited by a 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between NRF inthe visited network and the NRF in the home network, and an N31reference point between the NSSF in the visited network and the NSSF inthe home network.

In yet another example, system 700 may include multiple RAN nodes 711wherein an Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 711(e.g., gNBs and the like) that connect to SGC, between a RAN node 711(e.g., gNB) connecting to 5GC 720 and an eNB (e.g., a RAN node 611 ofFIG. 6), and/or between two eNBs connecting to 5GC 720. In someimplementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U)interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may providenon-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide dataforwarding and flow control functionality. The Xn-C may providemanagement and error handling functionality, functionality to manage theXn-C interface; mobility support for UE 701 in a connected mode (e.g.,CM-CONNECTED) including functionality to manage the UE mobility forconnected mode between one or more RAN nodes 711. The mobility supportmay include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 711to new (target) serving RAN node 711; and control of user plane tunnelsbetween old (source) serving RAN node 711 to new (target) serving RANnode 711. A protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport networklayer built on Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layeron top of a UDP and/or IP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-Cprotocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol(referred to as Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport networklayer that is built on an SCTP layer. The SCTP layer may be on top of anIP layer. The SCTP layer provides the guaranteed delivery of applicationlayer messages. In the transport IP layer point-to-point transmission isused to deliver the signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-Uprotocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as orsimilar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shownand described herein.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to variousexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 8 shows a diagrammaticrepresentation of hardware resources 800 including one or moreprocessors (or processor cores) 810, one or more memory/storage devices820, and one or more communication resources 830, each of which may becommunicatively coupled via a bus 840. As used herein, the term“computing resource”, “hardware resource”, etc., may refer to a physicalor virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computingenvironment, and/or physical or virtual component within a particulardevice, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space,processor/CPU time and/or processor/CPU usage, processor and acceleratorloads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/outputoperations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation,throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications,and/or the like. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV)is utilized, a hypervisor 802 may be executed to provide an executionenvironment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize thehardware resources 800. A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute,storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualizationinfrastructure to an application, device, system, etc.

The processors 810 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digitalsignal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit(RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) mayinclude, for example, a processor 812 and a processor 814.

The memory/storage devices 820 may include main memory, disk storage, orany suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 820 mayinclude, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatilememory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-accessmemory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flashmemory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 830 may include interconnection or networkinterface components or other suitable devices to communicate with oneor more peripheral devices 804 or one or more databases 806 via anetwork 808. For example, the communication resources 830 may includewired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a UniversalSerial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components,Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components,and other communication components. As used herein, the term “networkresource” or “communication resource” may refer to computing resourcesthat are accessible by computer devices via a communications network.The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities toprovide services, and may include computing and/or network resources.System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions,network data objects, or services, accessible through a server wheresuch system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and areclearly identifiable.

Instructions 850 may comprise software, a program, an application, anapplet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of theprocessors 810 to perform any one or more of the operationflow/algorithmic structures 300, 400, and/or 500. The instructions 850may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of theprocessors 810 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), thememory/storage devices 820, or any suitable combination thereof.Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 850 may be transferred tothe hardware resources 800 from any combination of the peripheraldevices or the databases. Accordingly, the memory of processors 810, thememory/storage devices 820, the peripheral devices 804, and thedatabases 806 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readablemedia.

In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s),chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, offigures herein may be configured to perform one or more processes,techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof.

Some non-limiting Examples of various embodiments are provided below.

Example 1 may include a method comprising: transmitting or causing totransmit a first attach request message for accessing restricted localoperator services (RLOS) provided by a serving network to a mobilitymanagement entity (MME) or an access and mobility management function(AMF); decoding or causing to decode, upon reception of an attach rejectmessage from the MME/AMF, a random number in the attach reject message;and transmitting or causing to transmit, to the MME/AMF, a second attachrequest message that includes the random number for accessing the RLOSand one or more subscription identifiers of the UE.

Example 2 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the MME/AMF is an MME/AMF of the serving network.

Example 3 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the UE is unauthenticated with respect to the servingnetwork.

Example 4 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the first attach request message and the second attachrequest message respectively include information of the RLOS.

Example 5 may include the method of example 4 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the first attach request message includes the one ormore subscription identifiers of the UE, and wherein the one or moresubscription identifiers include, at least one of, an internationalmobile subscriber identity (IMSI), an international mobile equipmentidentity (IMEI), and a universally unique identifier (UUID) with respectto the UE.

Example 6 may include the method of example 5 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the second attach request message further includes auniform resource locator (URL) of a device certificate with respect tothe UE, and wherein the URL of the GSMA device certificate is signedwith a private key by the UE.

Example 6.5 may include the method of example 6 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the device certificate is a global system formobile communications association (GSMA) device certificate.

Example 7 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, further comprising: disconnecting or causing to disconnect froman original network, and wherein the UE is wirelessly connected to theoriginal network that is different from the serving network.

Example 8 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, further comprising receiving or causing to receive anauthorization to access the RLOS based on a successful authorizationverification by the MME/AMF.

Example 9 may include the method of example 8 and/or some other exampleherein, further comprising: generating or causing to generate the firstattach request message; and generating causing to generate the secondattach request message based on decoding the attach reject message.

Example 10 may include the method of examples 1-9 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the method is performed by a UE or portionsthereof.

Example 11 may include a method, comprising: receiving or causing toreceive a first attach request message from an user equipment (UE) foraccessing restricted local operator services (RLOS) provided by aserving network associated with the MME/AMF; transmitting or causing totransmit, based on reception of the first attach request message, anattach reject message that includes a random number generated by theMME/AMF; decoding or causing to decide, based on reception of a secondattach request message from the UE, the random number in the secondattach request message; and determining or causing to determine anauthorization for the UE to access the RLOS, based on an authorizationverification by an authorization server or entity.

Example 12 may include the method of example 11 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising generating or causing to generate theattach reject message that includes the random number.

Example 13 may include the method of example 11 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the attach reject message further includes arequest for subscription identifier information from the UE, and whereinthe subscription identifier information includes, at least one of, aninternational mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), an international mobileequipment identity (IMEI), and a universally unique identifier (UUID)with respect to the UE.

Example 14 may include the method of example 13 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising: retrieving or causing to retrieve,based on reception of a second attach request message from the UE, atleast one of, the IMSI and IMEI in the second attach request; sending orcausing to send an authorization verification request message to theauthorization server or entity to retrieve a device certificate; andreceiving or causing to receive an authorization verification responsemessage from the authorization server or entity.

Example 15 may include the method of example 14 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the authorization verification request messageincludes the one or more subscription identifier information, the randomnumber, and a uniform resource locator (URL) of a device certificatewith respect to the UE, and the URL is in the second attach requestmessage.

Example 15.5 may include the method of example 15 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the device certificate is a global system formobile communications association (GSMA) device certificate.

Example 16 may include the method of example 15 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the URL of the GSMA device certificate is signedwith a private key by the UE.

Example 17 may include the method of examples 11-16 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the method is performed by an MME/AMF orportions thereof.

Example 18 may include a method, comprising: receiving or causing toreceive an authorization verification request message; determining orcausing to determine an authorization of RLOC for a UE based on anauthorization verification; and transmitting or causing to transmit anauthorization verification response message to an MME.

Example 19 may include the method of example 18 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the authorization verification request messageincludes the one or more subscription identifier information, the randomnumber, and a uniform resource locator (URL) of a device certificatewith respect to the UE, and the URL is in the second attach requestmessage.

Example 19.5 may include the method of example 15 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the device certificate is a global system formobile communications association (GSMA) device certificate.

Example 20 may include the method of example 19 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising: verifying or causing to verify theURL of the GSMA device certificate based on a retrieval of an devicecertificate from a certificate entity.

Example 21 may include the method of examples 18-20 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the method is performed by an authorizationserver or portions thereof.

Example 22 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one ormore elements of a method described in or related to any of examples1-21, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 23 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method describedin or related to any of examples 1-21, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 24 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 1-21, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 25 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-21, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 26 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-21, or portions thereof.

The present disclosure is described with reference to flowchartillustrations or block diagrams of methods, apparatuses (systems) andcomputer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. Itwill be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations orblock diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchartillustrations or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer programinstructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart or blockdiagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable medium that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instruction meansthat implement the function/act specified in the flowchart or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions that execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/actsspecified in the flowchart or block diagram block or blocks.

The description herein of illustrated implementations, including what isdescribed in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limitthe present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. While specificimplementations and examples are described herein for illustrativepurposes, a variety of alternate or equivalent embodiments orimplementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be made inlight of the above detailed description, without departing from thescope of the present disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant artwill recognize.

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium (CRM) having instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, cause a user equipment(UE) to perform operations, the operations comprising: transmitting afirst attach request message for accessing restricted local operatorservices (RLOS) provided by a serving network to a mobility managemententity (MME); decoding, upon reception of an attach reject message fromthe MME, a random number in the attach reject message; and transmitting,to the MME, a second attach request message that includes the randomnumber for accessing the RLOS and one or more subscription identifiersof the UE.
 2. The non-transitory CRM of claim 1, wherein the MME is anMME of the serving network.
 3. The non-transitory CRM of claim 1,wherein the UE is unauthenticated with respect to the serving network.4. (canceled)
 5. The non-transitory CRM of claim 1, wherein the firstattach request message and the second attach request messagerespectively include information of the RLOS; wherein the first attachrequest message includes the one or more subscription identifiers of theUE, and wherein the one or more subscription identifiers include atleast one of an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), aninternational mobile equipment identity (IMEI), or a universally uniqueidentifier (UUID) with respect to the UE.
 6. The non-transitory CRM ofclaim 5, wherein the second attach request message further includes auniform resource locator (URL) of a device certificate with respect tothe UE, wherein the URL of the device certificate is signed with aprivate key by the UE, and wherein the device certificate corresponds toa certificate authority with which an operator of the serving networkhas a business relationship or agreement.
 7. The non-transitory CRM ofclaim 6, wherein the device certificate corresponds to a global systemfor mobile communications association (GSMA) device certificate.
 8. Thenon-transitory CRM of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:disconnecting from an original network, wherein the UE is wirelesslyconnected to the original network that is different from the servingnetwork.
 9. The non-transitory CRM of claim 1, wherein the operationsfurther comprise generating the first attach request message; andgenerating the second attach request message based on decoding theattach reject message.
 10. The non-transitory CRM of claim 1, whereinthe MME is an access and mobility management function (AMF) in a newradio (NR) network.
 11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium (CRM)having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causea mobility management entity (MME) to perform operations, the operationscomprising: receiving a first attach request message from an userequipment (UE) for accessing restricted local operator services (RLOS)provided by a serving network associated with the MME; transmitting,based on reception of the first attach request message, an attach rejectmessage that includes a random number generated by the MME; decoding,based on reception of a second attach request message from the UE, therandom number in the second attach request message; and determining anauthorization for the UE to access the RLOS, based on an authorizationverification by an authorization server or entity.
 12. Thenon-transitory CRM of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:generating the attach reject message that includes the random number.13. The non-transitory CRM of claim 11, wherein the attach rejectmessage further includes a request for subscription identifierinformation from the UE, and wherein the subscription identifierinformation includes at least one of an international mobile subscriberidentity (IMSI), an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI), or auniversally unique identifier (UUID) with respect to the UE.
 14. Thenon-transitory CRM of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:retrieving, based on reception of a second attach request message fromthe UE, at least one of, the IMSI or the IMEI in the second attachrequest message; sending an authorization verification request messageto the authorization server or entity to retrieve a device certificate;and receiving an authorization verification response message from theauthorization server or entity.
 15. The non-transitory CRM of claim 14,wherein the authorization verification request message includes thesubscription identifier information, the random number, and a uniformresource locator (URL) of a device certificate with respect to the UE,and the URL is in the second attach request message.
 16. Thenon-transitory CRM of claim 15, wherein the URL of the devicecertificate is signed with a private key by the UE.
 17. Thenon-transitory CRM of claim 11, wherein the MME is an access andmobility management function (AMF) in a new radio (NR) network.
 18. Auser equipment (UE), comprising: one or more baseband processors,configured to: transmit a first attach request message to a mobilitymanagement entity (MME) for accessing restricted local operator services(RLOS) provided by a serving network associated with the MME; transmit,based on reception of an attach reject message, a second attach requestmessage to the MME for accessing the RLOS; and a central processing unit(CPU) coupled with the one or more baseband processors, the CPUconfigured to: generate the first attach request message that includesRLOS information and subscription identifiers of the UE; and generate,based on decoding the attach reject message, the second attach requestmessage that includes the RLOS information, the subscription identifiersof the UE, and a random number decoded from the attach reject message.19. The UE of claim 18, wherein the one or more baseband processors arefurther configured to: receive the attach reject message from the MME,wherein the attach reject message includes the random number and arequest for UE authorization information.
 20. The UE of claim 19,wherein the CPU is further configured to decode the attach rejectmessage.
 21. The UE of claim 18, wherein the second attach requestmessage further includes a uniform resource locator (URL) of a devicecertificate with respect to the UE, wherein the URL is signed by the UEwith a private key of the UE, and wherein the device certificatecorresponds to a global system for mobile communications association(GSMA) device certificate.
 22. (canceled)